8mm to disc

gerardpallen

Looking on information on putting 8mm cine reels on to discs. I have quite a lot and don't want to spend a lot of money doing it.
All stuff done by father in the 60's and 70's.

Any advice appreciated

Gerard:D

stcstc

the proper way to do it is to have a telecine transfer done, but that will cost you a lot

if you go buy one of the consumer video editing mags, you will find adverts for people that do it at a silly cheap price from the pros, but it wont be as good

the other option is have a look on ebay and see if you can pick up one of the machines cheap

or get a 8mm projector and stick a video camera in front of it

Arkana

stcstc wrote: »

...
or get a 8mm projector and stick a video camera in front of it

Well, no offense, but this last suggestion is nonsense. First, if you really did this technically, you never get the focus, second, the light spreading is always irregular - and even if (what is not possible) you get an image, it would be mirrored.
You could project with an 8mm (or Super8) projector onto a screen, and THEN copy it with a video camera, but the quality is horrible. The only reasonable value-for-money solution is (depending how many films you have), to get the following equipment: an 8mm/super8mm (determine!! it's not the same!) projector, a mirror black box, a (better two) bellows, suitable adapter rings and a video cam. The output lens of the projector is connected with the bellows/adapter rings to the input opening of the black box (bellows is for adjusting the distance without getting any side light!) and the videocam is connected in the same way with the output opening of the black box. The 45degree mirror inside works as a screen, providing regular light over the picture area and turns the mirrored image for the copying camera once again, so that it's right. The adjustment with the two bellows is quite an effort, but once it's done you can leave it like that and copy all your films.
Much luck!
Just a question at the end: How much do you maximum want to pay? Because I have a lab at hand and negotiated for several friends already. If I collect enough reels I get special prices...

gerardpallen

Firstly thanks for your response. My thing is, these all belonged to my father. He died almost 3 years ago. I'm hooked on family history in a big way, and I'm trying to preserve all these films. They go back aboout 40 years. I have about 20 that are about 30 minutes long, and possibly another 100 that are about 5 minute films. I honestly dont know how much I should pay. I can get other family members to suscribe as well. All I really want to do is archive them, as I know that some G.A.A. club, local agriculture shows, weddings, etc. would be glad to get a copy of something, they didn't know existed...

Thanks again
Gerard

I can contact yoou by phone if you wish....

stcstc

ctually what i was suggesting was putting a video camera in front of the screen, BUT i never suggested it was high quality

no one would suggest putting the camera in front of the end of the projector lens,

Alun

I had this done for some 8mm films from my father in law who died recently. They were just in a big cardboard box, no labels or anything, all jumbled up, some spliced together and crudely edited on to bigger reels, some not at all. I had them individually telecine transferred onto mini-DV tape, transferred that raw data onto my PC using a borrowed mini-DV camera and a firewire connection and then undertook the job of editing them into something reasonable for later transfer to DVD for ourself and other relatives. Now, that's a job I wish I hadn't volunteered for, I can tell you. I can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't cheap I can tell you.

FinoBlad

I've used this company in the past for one-off jobs.

http://www.videocopycentre.com/services_cine.htm

It looks expensive at first glance but I think you could negotiate or just do a few at a time as your budget allows. If you have a large capacity portable hard disk, that may be one way to save some money.

Good luck with this, I hope you have some nice memories in there.

Arkana

Well - take the prices and come back to me. We'll see if I can beat them.
:-)

gerardpallen

I haven't had any quotes yet, but I have at least a 100 reels. Some are 30 minutes long, but most are about 5 minutes......